Shamrock Sells Soybean Firm for $365 Million

Shamrock Holdings, the private investment company controlled by Roy E. Disney, said Monday that it has agreed to sell its Central Soya soybean processor to an Italian agricultural concern in a deal valued at $365 million, thus reaping a $170-million profit for Shamrock and its partners.

The sale, which Shamrock said is the largest acquisition of an American company by an Italian firm, involves Ferruzzi Agricola Finanziario of Ravenna, Italy, paying Shamrock $170 million in cash and assuming $195 million of Shamrock’s high-risk, high-yield “junk” bonds.

Shamrock, based in Burbank, issued the debt when it bought Central Soya in Fort Wayne, Ind., in April, 1985, paying $350 million and assuming $75 million in Central Soya debt. Shamrock said its profit would be $125 million on the deal and that its partners, which include British financier Jacob Rothschild, will make about $45 million.

Shamrock is owned by Roy Disney, Walt Disney’s nephew, and his family. Named for a Roy Disney racing yacht, the 9-year-old company is run largely by Shamrock President Stanley P. Gold, a former entertainment attorney who left his law practice to run Shamrock full time two years ago.

David H. Swanson, Central Soya’s president and chief executive, said Shamrock and Ferruzzi negotiated for about four months on the sale, which is expected to be completed next month.

Hollywood and Soy Beans

He said Ferruzzi originally was approached as part of an effort by Shamrock that began in January to seek international agricultural companies as minority investors in Central Soya. Swanson said Ferruzzi plans to offer Central Soya stock in a public offering, probably within a year.

Founded in 1933, Ferruzzi is the holding company for Ferruzzi Group, one of Europe’s largest soy, corn and sugar processors and also a major commodities trader. The company is run by Raul Gardini, who, like Disney, is an avid yachtsman. One of Gardini’s yachts recently was skippered by America’s Cup winner Dennis Conner.

Ferruzzi also owns 40% of Montedison, a giant Italian chemical company, and this year bought the European corn wet milling business from CPC International in Englewood Cliffs, N.J. Shamrock said Ferruzzi has about $18 billion in annual sales.

The merger of Shamrock and Central Soya was an odd one from the beginning, mating a company run by executives with roots in the entertainment business with a staid, $1.5-billion-a-year soybean processor.

Shortly after buying the company, Gold dismissed about 200 people, mostly executives and staff at Central Soya’s headquarters, and sold for $130 million the company’s sluggish brand-name foods division, which made burritos, margarine and a line of Cajun-style fare.